Wolverton: Amazon’s new tablet doesn’t light my Fire

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FILE- This Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 file photo shows the Kindle Fire at a news conference in New York. Amazon.com Inc. quenched the Kindle Fire on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012, saying its first tablet computer is now sold out. The Internet retailer has a major press conference scheduled for next Thursday in Santa Monica, Calif. It's widely expected to reveal a new model of the Fire there. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, FILE)

In terms of its underlying technology, Amazon’s new Kindle Fire HD is a huge leap over its predecessor. Despite that, I was underwhelmed by the new tablet.

The initial Kindle Fire was the first compelling tablet device that wasn’t made by Apple (AAPL). Unlike most tablets on the market when it debuted last fall, the Fire was inexpensive and easy to use, and its 7-inch screen made it easy to hold.

But the market has changed. Google’s (GOOG) Android software is much improved and its rival Nexus 7 tablet is a better general purpose tablet than the Fire HD.

That’s not to say Amazon’s new device is a dud — there’s a lot to like about it. The Fire HD has a much higher resolution screen than the original and is able to display HD videos. With 16 gigabytes of storage, it has double the capacity of the Fire at the same price. It has a longer-lasting battery and a faster Wi-Fi radio.

And unlike the original, it has a front camera for video calls and a touch screen that can recognize up to 10 fingertips at once, rather than just two, allowing owners to potentially use sophisticated gestures to interact with it.

I don’t know how many people will notice the more sensitive touch screen or the faster Wi-Fi radio. But the Fire HD’s screen is beautiful. Its resolution is not as good as the new iPad’s, but it’s noticeably better than its predecessor’s. High-definition images and content look great.

Skype users will appreciate the new front camera. I used it to make a Skype video call, and it worked fine.

The device is solidly built, though plain. It comes in an unremarkable black, rubberized plastic case with two physical buttons: a power button and a volume rocker button. They are set flush with the case, which can make them hard to find in the dark.

But the main feature of the Fire HD is its ability to connect with Amazon’s services and extensive array of digital content. Like its predecessor, it has a menu system that organizes content and features that are either on the device or accessible from the “cloud.” So users will find areas for books, apps, music, movies, the Web, photos and more.

Those menu items generally point to Amazon’s services. If you want to watch Netflix (NFLX) movies, you have to find it in the apps area, not in the movie one. In the movie area, you’ll just find movies that you’ve bought or can download or stream from Amazon. Likewise, if you want to listen to music on Pandora, you won’t have that option in the music store; there you’ll only find music you’ve bought from Amazon or stored on its servers.

If you are a heavy user of Amazon’s digital services, this type of organization is great. Consumers who have purchased e-books, movies or music from Amazon will be able to quickly access them. But if you want to do things other than watch Amazon movies or read Kindle e-books, the Fire HD is a much less satisfying device.

All of your apps are crammed within the “apps” or “games” menu. Unlike Android tablets, you don’t have multiple home screens on which to organize favorite applications or a task bar in which to place frequently used ones. Instead, in the area where you might have a task bar, Amazon advertises applications. I kept clicking on icons within it thinking I was going to launch Netflix or the Weather Channel app, but was taken instead to pages on which I could download those apps.

The device does have a “favorites” button underneath this marketing area to which you can save your most used apps, but I found that less useful than a true task bar.

The Fire HD also lacks a true app switching or multitasking system. Unlike on a standard Android device or an iPad, there’s no way to see all of the currently running or recent applications or switch to them while you’re still using a particular app. Instead, you generally have to back out to the home screen.

Thanks to these kinds of limitations, the Fire HD feels less like a general purpose tablet than a device meant to tie you to Amazon’s services.

And there are other reasons to dislike the Kindle Fire. For one thing, it’s sluggish. Amazon says it bumped up the processor, but I often experienced a noticeable delay in launching apps.

One technology Amazon has touted in its Kindle devices is its Silk browser. Silk attempts to speed the loading of Web pages by having some of the processing needed to display them done by Amazon’s servers on the Internet. Amazon said the Fire HD’s Silk browser is 30 percent faster than the original Fire’s.

But that doesn’t mean it’s fast. In a head-to-head competition with Google’s rival Nexus 7 connected to the same network, the Fire HD’s browser often lost out, loading Web pages a second or two after the Nexus 7.

Another thing some users may object to is that the Fire HD is like a mobile billboard for Amazon. When you turn it on, it displays an ad, whether for an Amazon product, a Discover card or for any number of Amazon’s advertising partners. You can opt out of seeing the ads, but it will cost you an extra $15.

So Amazon’s new tablet is better than last year’s version, but it doesn’t really light my Fire.

Contact Troy Wolverton at 408-840-4285 or twolverton@mercurynews.com. Follow him at www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton or Twitter.com/troywolv.

Troy Wolverton writes the Tech Files column and covers consumer technology as the personal technology columnist for the Bay Area News Group. Previously, he covered Apple and the consumer electronics industry. Earlier, he reported on technology, business and financial issues for TheStreet.com and CNET News.com.

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